Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Proc Biol Sci. 2022 May 25;289(1975):20220476. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2022.0476.
Although living in social groups provides many benefits for group members, such groups also serve as a setting for social competition over rank and influence. Evolutionary accounts suggest that social anxiety plays a role in regulating in-group conflict, as individuals who are concerned about social threat may choose to defer to others to maintain the hierarchical status quo. Here, we examine how social anxiety levels are related to the advice-giving style an individual adopts: a competitive influence-seeking strategy or a defensive blend-in strategy. We begin by demonstrating that similarity to others drives activity in the brain's valuation system, even during a competitive advice-taking task. Then, in three behavioural experiments, we show that social anxiety levels are related to the tendency to give advice resembling the advice given by rival advisers and to refrain from status-seeking behaviour. Social anxiety was also associated with negative social comparisons with rival advisers. Our findings highlight the role of competing social goals in shaping information sharing.
尽管生活在社会群体中为群体成员带来了许多好处，但这些群体也是社会地位和影响力竞争的场所。进化理论表明，社交焦虑在调节群体内冲突方面发挥了作用，因为那些担心社交威胁的个体可能会选择服从他人以维持等级现状。在这里，我们研究了社交焦虑水平与个体所采用的建议方式之间的关系：一种是具有竞争力的寻求影响力的策略，另一种是具有防御性的融入策略。我们首先证明了与他人的相似性会驱动大脑估值系统的活动，即使是在竞争的寻求建议的任务中也是如此。然后，在三项行为实验中，我们表明社交焦虑水平与倾向于提供类似于竞争对手提供的建议以及避免寻求地位的行为有关。社交焦虑也与与竞争对手进行的负面社会比较有关。我们的发现强调了竞争的社会目标在塑造信息共享方面的作用。
